1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to systems and methods of ranking prescreened credit offers.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lending institutions provide credit accounts such as mortgages, automobile loans, credit card accounts, and the like, to consumers. Prior to providing an account to a potential borrower, however, many of these institutions review credit related data, demographic data, and/or other data related to the potential borrower in order to determine whether the borrower should be issued the applied-for credit account. In the case of credit cards, for example, credit card issuers typically obtain a credit report for the potential borrower in order to aid in determining whether the borrower should be offered a credit card and, if so, what rates and terms should be offered to the borrower. Thus, for any particular credit card, a first group of borrowers will be accepted for the credit card and a second group of borrowers will not be accepted for the credit card, where the size of the accepted group typically increases as the desirability of the credit card decreases.
Certain lenders, such as credit card issuers, for example, offer a “finder's fee,” also referred to herein as a “bounty,” to an entity that refers a potential borrower to apply for a particular credit card, should the borrower eventually be issued the particular credit card. Thus, some businesses present invitations to apply for credit cards to their customers, hoping that some customers will click on the invitation to apply, fill out an application for the credit card, and eventually be issued a credit card.